It's Starting!

After nearly 3 months here, we can finally say that real life is going to start!

It's just midnight here, and I am exhausted and about to crash. But let it be known in the world:

Ray and I are finally in-processing for our jobs next Monday and I will begin teaching Level 3 swim lessons  next Tuesday! We should have ID cards by Thursday or Friday of next week; and really, I couldn't ask for a better birthday present than that.

We can finally start planning more trips with the comfort of an income and we can finally start looking at cars seriously since an ID card will allow us registration privileges.

Plus, I finished filing our taxes today.

Life is Good

**UPDATE** This morning at 10:30 we got a call from HR for Ray telling us that Ray was missing a paper and without it he couldn't in-process on Monday. After learning which paper it was, we reminded them we turned that paper in over a month ago... :|

Also, about 2 weeks ago on one of our visits they said another agency had missed a signature. So we took that paper back to the agency, got the signature, and returned it to HR within an hour. And this was the so called "missing" paper. Each time we asserted we had turned it in and tried to coax that from their memory, they simply stated "Well we don't have it. You have to do it again." 

I made a mad dash to try and figure out how to get on base again today. When we received another call from HR:

HR: "Yeah, hi, Kaitlin?" (You obviously work hard enough at your job to know the names of the people you're assigned to help, thanks for that). 

Me: "Yes, this is Kailin..."

HR: "Oh hey, we found that paper of Ray's. It was in the shredder box."

Me: "Well is it shredded, then?!"

HR: "Oh no, just the 'to-be shredded" box. The pregnant lady apologizes. Hahaha...ha...hmm..."

Me: "... Okay, well thanks then. So we're still on Monday?"

HR: "Yup, see you then!"

Good grief. Slight panic moment, but life is still good.  

The Only Thing Worse Than Not Having a GPS...

... is having a GPS. As we so aptly discovered in this weeks diversions.

On Thursday we were able to take to a car; my mom suggested a castle only about 15 minutes away. For this trip, we had the GPS AND the address via GoogleMaps.

I think everyone knows that sinking feeling when your GPS doesn't recognize or accept the address you are telling it to find. You insist your destination exists; pictures and testimonials support you! And yet your GPS mocks you with all its technology-ness- blaring in your face that "No matches were found." Oh how I hate that.

We decided to try and find the castle anyway. We knew the general area and we did have an address after all. Down the autobahn we went, searching for an exit that supposedly didn't exist. Part of the address included "Burg Lichtenberg" and soon we found a large brown sign announcing we were in the Burg Lichtenberg area- which was kind of a help but still no castle. After driving far past where we even thought we should be, we turned around and just took an exit and began driving again.

Finally, exasperated, we pulled into a small town and just stopped the car. Lo and Behold! They provided a map. We located the castle and learned our GPS didn't accept the address because the town 'Thallichtenberg" had only one 'l' on Google. A quick adjustment, and we were soon at the 13th century castle high up on the hill enjoying the brief break in the cloudy sky.

This section of the castle has been converted into a restaurant which we plan to visit on a sunnier day.

Gorgeous view!

Our next GPS adventure happened yesterday when we left to go to the Frankfurt LDS Temple for our ward temple day. The session started at 0900, and even though we're only about an hour and a half away, we were meeting for carpool at 0615- blech! It ended up just being us and one other ward member who agreed to drive. He asked us if we had a GPS, which we didn't, but we told him we were close to home and could go get it.

"Nah, I've got my phone GPS, we should be good. Let's go."

Famous last words...

The phone GPS did indeed get us to the temple, nearly two hours later. We missed multiple exits and worried we may miss everything. Fortunately, we were able to do some maneuvering and get there in time. Phew!

Fast forward, we left the temple around 1145 (after we paid for clothing rental, 12 Euro, ouch!). The phone only had 10% battery left and we needed gas. We managed to get directions to the gas station, and even write the basics down to get home from there before it died. And then, we were on our own.

Getting to the main freeway wasn't too bad, it was the four after that that eluded us. When Matt, our driver, expressed concern that we hadn't seen our exit yet, we flipped to a small map he luckily had in the car. We found a city we'd just seen a sign for and realized we were about an hour north of where we should have been. Oops.

Ray did some master navigating and suggested we take a diagonal route that would potentially save us some time. It probably did, but we'll never know because we still managed to miss exits and end up on wrong freeways. Finally we got to Frankfurt-am-Mainz and saw signs for cities remotely close to home. I was so happy to recognize a city! Until I converted the kilometers to miles and realized we were still about an hour from that city... which was still about half an hour from home. Ouch.

Needless to say, there was much rejoicing in our small party when we finally were on a road we all recognized, and the signs indicated we were indeed going the correct direction. Nearly three and a half hours later, we arrived back at home.

 Next time, no matter what, we'll just go back for the GPS.

We made it. Frankfurt Temple.

Frankfurt LDS Temple

Happy Birthday to Ray!

Quick story- I just went to Google Translate to try and find out what 'happy birthday' is in German. As it turns out, Google says Germans say "Happy Birthday" when they wish someone a felicitous day of entry into this world. That's one phrase less I have to learn in German.

Anyway, it was Ray's birthday! The old man is now closer to 30 than he is 20. I like the few weeks between our birthdays because he always seems so old to me and it makes me laugh. For some reason, the difference between 22 and 26 is phenomenally larger than 23 and 26. Wouldn't you agree?

We celebrated with Ray's favorite (as I suspect we will for years to come): spaghetti with meat sauce, and banana cream pie. I used the same pie recipe as I did last year which worked well... last time. For some reason this year it turned out more a banana cream soup than pudding. We're gonna blame Germany for that one. It tasted good all the same though.

If you didn't already know, Ray is rather difficult to buy gifts for. But I feel I can proudly say that it only took me three birthdays and two Christmases to get him a gift he was really, truly happy to receive. This year we took the board game approach. He got: SET, Power Grid, First Sparks (from his padre), and Puerto Rico (from my parentals). We've had lots of fun challenging each other and my mom and stepdad at SET, and we're looking forward to sitting down to an intense Power Grid session.

Here are the best pictures of the evening. Don't mind how haggard I look. I spent last week in a WSI (Water Safety Instructor) course where I had to 'relearn' how to swim in order to prove I could actually teach kids how to swim. It was hard not to feel like it was wasting my time, but I did it, and I am now Red Cross certified. Woot.

Banana Soup- woops!

I think Ray was about to sneeze when I snapped this. Priceless. The birthday boy at his finest.

Look how happy (and adorable) he is. He's holding a paper of Puerto Rico since shipping takes a while to get here, so we're actually still waiting on that one.

Everybody partied. Even Sheba.

Happy birthday to my husband. I love that old fart ; )

Trier

For the long, holiday weekend, we had originally been tossing around the idea of going to Paris.

That was a little pricey though.

Plus, my mom had to leave to London Monday morning for work, so we all just lounged and relaxed this weekend. On Monday, Ray, my stepdad and I all went to Trier; about 45 minutes from home.

Back during the Roman Empire, Trier was the "Rome" of the North. It had Roman baths, an amphitheater and a grand city wall. Today, the ruins are the oldest Roman remains north of the Alps. Most structures dated back at least 2000 years. Everything was within easy walking distance so we spent the afternoon roaming and snapping pictures. The downtown area is now full of stores and restaurants, so I picked up a coin purse there too (when I got here, I had three different nations currencies in my wallet. That wasn't working out so well in the checkout line).

Porta Nigra- the gate to the ancient city of Trier. It's been made black by centuries of pollution.

This is the entrance into the basement of the Imperial Baths. If the baths had ever been completed, this is where the water would have run, heating and cooling the rooms above.

Another hallway of the Imperial Baths. It was dark and dank down there. Definitely not where I'd want to be during the zombie apocalypse.

This is my favorite picture of us from the trip. Right after I had been alerted that there crumbs on my face. How embarrassing...

Perspective. This structure is more than a thousand years old.

In medieval times, a noble family took over the 'ruined' baths and turned it into their home.

This amphitheater is thought to have held 20,000 people at times. There are 15 cage rooms around the ring where animals and gladiators were held just before being released into the arena. Walking into the small rooms and thinking of who or what had been held there centuries ago was an eerie feeling. 

Back in the downtown area where even fountains have history and awe-striking powers.

Trier was an excellent day trip. There's still plenty more to see, so it may merit another visit, in the summer though.

Little Town...

"It's a quiet village. Every day like the one before."

Never have truer words been spoken. Thanks Belle, I knew someone would understand me.

We live in a little place, with probably no more than 4,000 people (that's the size of my entire high school, where I at least knew almost everyone's name). And up until a week ago our days never varied. Without a car, and confined to a small village, there really isn't much to do.

Graciously though, we got jobs last week! Ray and I will be working in a child & youth program on an air force base about 20 minutes from home. The pre-employment process for the government fortunately requires a lot of hoop jumping and so we've been running around a lot getting physicals, immunizations, tests, background checks, fingerprints, etc. It's been quite the exhausting (but welcomed) diversion.

Next on our To Do list now, is buy a car! So far we're leaning towards a Volkswagon Golf, I think they're kinda cute, in a European sort of way...

 

 

image source

Other than that...

We've had random snow storms that cover everything with a few inches, and then it all melts off within a day or two. The other morning it had snowed overnight and the sky was bright blue when I woke up. I took the opportunity of the gorgeous day to take a walk and document our sweet little village.

Down the street to our village's church. It rings every hour on the hour!

This is the street our house is on- it's got "speed trees" instead of speed bumps to get you to slow down. Slalom, baby!

This field is just behind our neighborhood. Pictured is a neighboring village.

Our village's skyline- that's the church on the right.

Home, sweet home!

 It's a good place. We like it. We're super excited to start our jobs and get a car so we can start venturing out more!

Venice Carnival

Did you know going to a masquerade was on my bucket list? Well now you do.

Did you also know that this weekend I got to cross that off my bucket list? No? Let me tell you about it...

A friendly family out here invited our family to join them this past weekend as they attended Carnival in Venice, Italy. The price of the trip was phenomenal and it included a masquerade ball! So of course we said yes, and we began planning.

On Friday afternoon we flew over the gorgeous Swiss Alps, still snow capped, and rising jaggedly above the clouds. When we touched down in Italy, we took a quick bus to Venice and then hopped onto the vaporetto (Venice's water boat/bus) to get to our hotel. It took some meandering but we finally made it to our hotel along the Grand Canal.

Saturday brought heavy rain clouds that dumped all day long, but they also included a silver lining. The family we were with, having attended Carnival before, told us that wearing our costumes all day Saturday was the norm. So we woke up that morning and donned our best 18th century Venetian attire complete with masks.

Out into the rain we went.

The downpour had discouraged many from wearing their elaborate costumes and when we got to Saint Mark's Square people were huddled around the fringe of the square taking shelter under the roofing of various stores and cafes. Suddenly, we walked into the group and became instant stars! We were the only ones brave enough to go full costume, which is what everyone came to see at Carnival, so we ended up standing and posing with tourists for hours on end as they oggled our costumes! All morning long, this was our view:

Becoming an instant celebrity made up for the rain that continued all day and soaked right through our shoes. After lunch we headed back to the hotel to dry out so we'd be ready to dance away the evening at the masquerade.

The masquerade had classic Venetian dishes (read: fish) that were quite nice. There was some entertainment, and then the dancing began around 10:30PM. Half the fun was just soaking up the ambiance, the other half was admiring the costumes of those who really went all out.

This is my mom- she got a super cool mask.

This group of 8 had matching costumes, but mostly I loved their wigs.

We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel. We crashed and woke up to a bright blue sky outside. Hooray! Ray and I split from our larger group on Sunday and did some exploring on our own. Our first stop was the Ponte dell'Accademia, the bridge right next to our hotel. We'd noticed love locks along the bridge and wanted to add our own. We locked our love up tight, sealed it with a kiss, and dropped the key into the Grand Canal below. Romantic, I know.

Here's our love lock- forever in Venice.

After that, we meandered a few streets down to the Ca'Rezzinico, which an 18th century home turned museum. We were the only ones there so we had the entire mansion to ourselves to admire the endless frescoes and framed artwork. Plus they had some stellar views from the top floor.

We hopped back on the vaporetto after that and since we had a two day pass, we were able to quickly jump off to get a better look at this building:

 St. Mary's church. We arrived just in time to make a quick walk through and hear the organ start playing before it was closed to the public for the day.

Back on the water bus one more time to get to St. Mark's Square so we could see more costumes, and go into St. Mark's Basilica. It was gorgeous- the last time I was in Venice I didn't get to go inside, and I'm so glad we went this time. The mosaics were intricate and beautiful, and we got to experience that reverent awe that comes when entering old landmarks such as this one.

The view of the square from the balcony of the Basilica- teeming with Carnival-goers!

At this point, it was time to head back to the hotel to pick up our bags and meet up with the group for an early dinner before departing the floating city. Our two final purchases were gelatto, and a mask ornament for our collection (Ray and I both collected Christmas ornaments before we met, and now we get one from each place we visit). We picked up this ornament as we were rushing to the bus, we didn't allot time very well. We ran past a stall, picked up the first ornament we saw and thrust the two euro at the woman standing there. She tried to call out to us and give us change that we'd mistakenly thrown in, but we were already booking it down the walkway and called back to her to just keep it.

Venice got Ray's seal of approval and we hope to go back soon to do more sight seeing and eat more gelatto. Here's some more of our favorite pictures from the trip.

Just before we got turned into stars, or suns in Ray's case.

This is the canal entrance to our hotel.

Snappin' a quick photo some some cool costumes by St. Mark's.

Ray took this photo- isn't it awesome?

This group was on the vaporetto with us as we were leaving. I loved their "Under the Sea" theme.

Eating gelatto and happily sitting on the steps leading into the canal.

On Being A Foreigner

Sunday morning we woke up to new snow, and as an added bonus: a layer of ice! It literally looked as if a giant had sneezed on the car and then it had frozen overnight. Nevertheless, we left home to get to our 9AM church block.

45 minutes later...

We were lost and a little frustrated that the roads had been so poorly cleared. But still, they weren't that bad- after all, I grew up in Utah! I've seen worse.

Apparently though, it's different in Germany. When we finally found the building around 9:15 we were surprised to see only 6 cars in the parking lot. Upon walking in, we were informed church had been cancelled due to the icy roads... : | Oh.

Fortunately, the German branch met at 11, so we were able to hang around until that time so we could at least participate in the sacrament. Bonus: we got our number on the calling tree list so we know the next time church is cancelled due to poor road conditions.

The German sacrament meeting was great, a sweet woman translated for us. Ray and I have been doing a bit of German each day. We're really determined to learn this language since we failed miserably at Mandarin. That being said, we've learned the alphabet and the sounds so we felt fairly confident when hymns came around that we could at least try and sing along.
Oh how wrong we were.

In the middle of the first hymn, singing loudly and confidently (my excellent choir teacher in high school always told us to sing loud and if you make a mistake, make it confidently), I could hear Ray snickering. He elbowed me discreetly and motioned for me to look a few pews ahead of us. There sat a little German boy, head fully turned around, staring at us with mouth wide open, and eyebrows raised in a look of what I can really only describe as: disdain mixed with confusion.

Apparently my two weeks of studying German haven't been enough to mask my OBVIOUSLY obnoxious American accent. You could tell this child was picking up on our off-key tones of German, and was clearly annoyed, appalled, alarmed and disgruntled at our inability to sing in his native tongue perfectly. He just kept staring.

The best part? I swear this child was no more than six. We giggled through the rest of the hymn and toned down our bravado so as not to offend him anymore.